1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink-jet recording apparatus, in particular, including an ink-jet head on which ink ejection ports are formed.
2. Description of Related Art
In some ink-jet recording apparatuses, an ink-jet head having an ink ejection face on which ink ejection ports are formed is provided with a wiper for eliminating matters adhering to the ink ejection face. The wiper has functions of eliminating extraneous matters and excessive ink, which are adhering to the ink ejection face, and stably keeping meniscuses. However, when a large amount of matters are adhering to the ink ejection face, the wiper may not fully remove the adhering matters from the ink ejection face. In addition, wiping by the wiper may cause a trouble that some ink ejection ports are stopped by extraneous matters and the meniscuses can not stably be kept.
For the above reason, an apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 2005-74671 includes a brush for brushing off adhering matters from the ink ejection face before wiping by the wiper. Because the wiper wipes the ink ejection face after adhering matters are brushed off from the ink ejection face to a certain extent, the adhering matters are surely removed from the ink ejection face and the meniscuses are stably kept.
In the apparatus disclosed in the above Publication, however, the brush merely gets dirty due to ink and extraneous matters brushed off from the ink ejection face. Therefore, many times of cleanings of the ink ejection face with the brush lead to cleaning of the ink ejection face with the dirty brush. As a result, the ink ejection face does not become clean.